ARTHUR'S PASS TUNNEL.

Press, Volume LIV, Issue 16162, 16 March 1918, Page 10

ARTHUR'S PASS TUNNEL.

« telegram: from mr massey. UNION ASKS MEN TO STAND TOGETHER. CFROM OUR OWN CORBESrONDEST.) OTIRA, March 15. No important developments took placc to-day in connexion with the strike. In reply to a telegram, the Rt. Hon. W. F. Massey said Sir William Fraser was at present in the North Auckland district-, which is probably why no reply has been received from him. A meeting of the union was held this •afternoon, mainly to discuss the Minister's delay in replying and tho treatment accorded the union in not settling what they call a fair dispute. The union asked the men to stand together and win, rather then leave the fight to a few. Pressure is being brought on several Ministers by business people to hasten a settlement. THE UNION'S CASE. STATEMENT BY THE SECRETARY. Mr H. Hunter, secretary to tho Unitod Federation of Labour, has received the following letter, dated the 12th inst., from the secretary of the , Otira Union: — Your letter to hand by last mail, and I will now endeavour to place before you the facts of tho dispute. Wo have ab Otira a class of work for which boysor disabled men have always been employed. ■ Their duties were to hand out the carbide to the men going on shift, attend to the telephone exchange which is erected in the lamp room; also at-, tond to a small steam boiler that heafS the water for bathroom and wash-basins, and also dries the clothes in changerooms. The rate of pay was fixed Dy verbal agreement, some threo or four years back, at 7s por day—a boy's wages. Since this agreement was maao, tho management have had erected a steam plant for the purpose of driving the gonerator for tho electric power during the dry weather. This plant is entirely separate from the lamp-room, and impossibloVto bo attended to by the boy who is on shift in the lamp-room. A few weeks ago the department found it necessary to bring tho steam power plant' into use. To man that plant there must be a certificated enginedriver and fireman ; to get three firemen they took one man from inside the tunnel, one strong lad from the engineers'" shop, and one boy 10} years of age from the lamp-room, compelling the other lamp-room boys to work 12 hours each. The boy. when called on, went to the steam plant and worked about two hours on the-firing. It having started to rain the steam was shut down, the boy finishing up his shift cleaning up, etc., next shift going back to his own job in lamp-room. During that two hours firing the boiler, tho lad found ho would bo unablo to undertake this heavier work. Work went on for ono or two days, the electric power again got slack, which meant starting the steam plant away again; it started afternoon shift. When the.boy came on in lamp-room at 12 o'clock, night shift, he found that afternoon shift-mate had got orders to work 12 hours, and that he had to go into power-house firing again. Now, as I said before, this boy, Fell, had found he was unable to do the work. He went and saw tho engineer in charge of that work, and informed him that he oould not undertake the work in the powerhouse, firing the boiler, as it was heavier work than he was engaged for. The engineer then'told him that unless he did tho firing he was no good to him, and he would be dismissed. Ho then told him to go home again. As this happened in the middle of the night, and all the bosses were in bed, the lad went home. Next day he went up to the works to report, and find out if he really was dismissed. The engineer enquired tho reason ho refused to fire the boiler in steam ulant. The boy explained that) the work was too heavy, as lie had a crippled hand and could not do a man's ■work. After a consultation with the resident engineer, the assistant-engineer then told the boy to go back into the , lamp-room on his own job, but at the same time ho usod a threat that b® would be dismissed again, on the first chance they had of getting another boTj unless he did tlis firing. All went well. The boy went on working as usual for about three weeks, but one day he was informed that as he could not do the work required his services would he n<> . longer required. The hoy then placed" the matter in the hands of the Union. The first step taken by the president of the Union was to interview the as-sistant-engineer, who has charge of the lamp-room, and found out his reasons for sacking the boy. He told him that he was dismissed because he was unable to do the firing on steam plant. There was no other complaint laid against the lad, and they were satisfied that he was quite capable of attending to all dnl%a as lamp-room attendant, but the boss held that he was entitled to put the boy to any other work he wanted doing, irrespective of what class of labour ' it was or what wages he paid. Now. to put the stand of tho Union in a nutshell, we hold that it takes three boys or crippled men to man the lanmroom, working eight honrs each. Wo strongly object to them taking on» away to do work in other places, and; oompelling the other two to work twelvo hours a day. This is the case wo putbefore Mr Furkert, and from that tho 1 Union will not budge. This lamp-room has always been manned by men who have been maimed in ' on© way or another. At ono time there were three one-legged men employed. After that there was one man with one leg, and two meii who had lost tho sight of one eye, all injured on the works. At the time of the trouble there was ono of the men with the one eye, one incapable of taking on any "work that would require a little knowledge to attend to. and tho third one this boy, l&J years of age, with one hand deformed. Wo hold that no man who has only one eye, or boys, should be called on t® work over ail eight-hour day, nor should •we stand by and see tho Government put tho boy to do a man's work. —I ant» yours for justice (signed), J. McLaron, Secretary. DEPUTATION TO MINISTER. Sir William Fraser, Minister of Public Works, telegraphing in reply to the Mayor's suggestion that tho day on which the deputation to urge on the Minihter tho speeding-up of the completion of tho Arthur's Pass tunnel should be received, should be altered from the 26th to the 27th inst., has agreed to the suggestion to meet tnedeputation in Cliristchurch on tne last-mentioned date. v The necessity for sugssstinK r 1 " teration arose from the fact that '■* v> 26th were adhered to, the T»es.< 00as* members of the deputation wotlM . ✓ quire to devote about a wcet 10 " tending and getting home. . An endeavour will bo made hour of tbe •derratatinn at a**®*